
What are some of the symptoms for diabetes mellitus?
- Urinate (pee) a lot, often at night
- Are very thirsty
- Lose weight without trying
- Are very hungry
- Have blurry vision
- Have numb or tingling hands or feet
- Feel very tired
- Have very dry skin
- Have sores that heal slowly
- Have more infections than usual
What does it mean to be diabetes mellitus?
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease. It is characterized by high levels of sugar in the blood. Type 2 diabetes is also called type 2 diabetes mellitus and adult-onset diabetes. That's because it used to start almost always in middle- and late-adulthood. However, more and more children and teens are developing this condition.
What is the most common urinary symptom of diabetes mellitus?
by Iqra Mumal, MS — Last updated: 2019-10-10 in Lymphatic & Endocrine system. One of the earliest symptoms of diabetes is polyuria (frequent urination). This article outlines how and why patients with diabetes develop polyuria. Polyuria is a condition in which you urinate more than normal.
What is diabetes mellitus requiring hypoglycemic medications?
When we talked about diabetes meds list ontology, we once mellitus requiring hypoglycemic medications said that all diabetes mellitus requiring hypoglycemic medications things must be caused by certain things blood sugar level 76 by certain things of the same variety.
Where did the word "diabetes" come from?
What is DM in diabetes?
Who discovered the sweet nature of urine?
When was insulin first used in cows?
What is the difference between T1DM and T2DM?
See 2 more
About this website

What does mellitus mean in diabetes?
(The name diabetes mellitus refers to these symptoms: diabetes, from the Greek diabainein, meaning “to pass through,” describes the copious urination, and mellitus, from the Latin meaning “sweetened with honey,” refers to sugar in the urine.)
Where did diabetes originally come from?
Diabetes: Its Beginnings The first known mention of diabetes symptoms was in 1552 B.C., when Hesy-Ra, an Egyptian physician, documented frequent urination as a symptom of a mysterious disease that also caused emaciation.
What does mellitus mean?
: a variable disorder of carbohydrate metabolism caused by a combination of hereditary and environmental factors and usually characterized by inadequate secretion or utilization of insulin, by excessive urine production, by excessive amounts of sugar in the blood and urine, and by thirst, hunger, and loss of weight — ...
What was diabetes first called?
They called the condition madhumeha, meaning honey urine. During the third century B.C.E., Apollonius of Memphis mentioned the term “diabetes,” which may have been its earliest reference.
When was diabetes called?
The term diabetes was probably coined by Apollonius of Memphis around 250 BC. Diabetes is first recorded in English, in the form diabete, in a medical text written around 1425. It was in 1675 that Thomas Willis added the word “'mellitus'” to the word diabetes. This was because of the sweet taste of the urine.
Does diabetes mellitus mean sweet urine?
What made the urine sweet were high levels of glucose, or sugar. That is how this discovery of sweet urine became part of the name, diabetes mellitus.
Is there a difference between diabetes and diabetes mellitus?
Diabetes mellitus is more commonly known simply as diabetes. It's when your pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin to control the amount of glucose, or sugar, in your blood. Diabetes insipidus is a rare condition that has nothing to do with the pancreas or blood sugar.
What is the introduction of diabetes mellitus?
Diabetes is a chronic, metabolic disease characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose (or blood sugar), which leads over time to serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves.
Who created the word diabetes?
In the 2nd century AD Aretaeus of Cappadocia provided the first accurate description of diabetes, coining the term diabetes, while in 17th century Thomas Willis added the term mellitus to the disease, in an attempt to describe the extremely sweet taste of the urine.
When did doctors taste urine for diabetes?
It was sweet, even a little delicious. In 1674 the Oxford University physician was far from the first doctor to taste urine, but he was the first Western doctor we know of to connect the sweetness of urine to the condition of its owner, a person suffering the effects of diabetes.
What was diabetes called in the 1700s?
Early accounts often referred to diabetes as a disease of the kidneys. In 1674, Thomas Willis suggested that diabetes may be a disease of the blood. Johann Peter Frank is credited with distinguishing diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus in 1794.
How did diabetics survive before insulin?
Before insulin was discovered in 1921, people with diabetes didn't live for long; there wasn't much doctors could do for them. The most effective treatment was to put patients with diabetes on very strict diets with minimal carbohydrate intake. This could buy patients a few extra years but couldn't save them.
How did diabetics survive before insulin?
Before insulin was discovered in 1921, people with diabetes didn't live for long; there wasn't much doctors could do for them. The most effective treatment was to put patients with diabetes on very strict diets with minimal carbohydrate intake. This could buy patients a few extra years but couldn't save them.
Who first discovered diabetes?
In the 2nd century AD Aretaeus of Cappadocia provided the first accurate description of diabetes, coining the term diabetes, while in 17th century Thomas Willis added the term mellitus to the disease, in an attempt to describe the extremely sweet taste of the urine.
When did diabetes start to rise?
The number of people with diabetes rose from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. Prevalence has been rising more rapidly in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation.
When did diabetes become an epidemic?
In 1994, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) diabetes program declared that diabetes had reached epidemic proportions and should be considered as a major public health problem.
Diabetes - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic
Diabetes mellitus refers to a group of diseases that affect how the body uses blood sugar (glucose). Glucose is an important source of energy for the cells that make up the muscles and tissues.
Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by persistent hyperglycemia. It may be due to impaired insulin secretion, resistance to peripheral actions of insulin, or both. According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), approximately 415 million adults between the ages of 20 to 79 years had diabetes mellitus in 2015.[1] DM is proving to be a global public ...
Diabetes mellitus - PubMed
Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. The chronic hyperglycemia of diabetes mellitus is associated with long-term damage, dysfunction, and failure of various organs, especially the eyes, …
How long has diabetes been around?
Diabetes has been around for centuries. In fact, cases of diabetes can be traced as far back as the ancient Egyptians. In the 1800s, dogs helped scientist study and determine how the pancreas and lack of the hormone insulin revealed signs of diabetes. In the 1930s up through the 1970s, society commonly referred to individuals with diabetes as having “sugar,” but the correct medical term for diabetes is ‘diabetes mellitus’. Today, healthcare teams most commonly refer to it as ‘diabetes’.
What are the factors that contribute to diabetes?
Lifestyle, genetic, and the environment all share a role in your risk for developing diabetes. Diagnosis, care and treatment as well as learning how to be an active self-manager can make living with diabetes a sweet story. For more on diabetes prevention, diagnosis and care plans visit your health care provider.
What does it mean to have diabetes in November?
And most of us can define that having diabetes means controlling foods you eat especially those containing sugar.
How does the body rid itself of sugar?
The body will need to rid itself of excess sugar in the blood stream by passing it though the kidneys and bladder out through urination. Knowing the origin of diabetes mellitus helps give us a better understanding of symptoms related to the disease – high blood sugar and frequent urination.
Is diabetes type 1 and type 2 treatable?
Both diabetes type 1 and type 2 are highly treatable under the care of your healthcare team. The group of diseases associated with diabetes (type 1 & type 2, gestational and pre-diabetes) is on the rise. Lifestyle, genetic, and the environment all share a role in your risk for developing diabetes.
Is diabetes sweet or sour?
Having Diabetes is anything but sweet. Even though glucose is sweet, there is nothing sweet about having high blood glucose. It is a serious issue facing many people in the U.S.. If you are glucose intolerant your body may not be able to adequately break down glucose (sugar).
What is diabetes mellitus?
Diabetes mellitus, disorder of carbohydrate metabolism characterized by impaired ability of the body to produce or respond to insulin and thereby maintain proper levels of sugar ( glucose) in the blood.
What are the symptoms of diabetes?
Other symptoms of diabetes include itching, hunger, weight loss, and weakness. The islets of Langerhans are responsible for the endocrine function of the pancreas. Each islet contains beta, alpha, and delta cells that are responsible for the secretion of pancreatic hormones.
How does insulin affect the body?
Insulin’s role in the body is to trigger cells to take up glucose so that the cells can use this energy-yielding sugar . Patients with diabetes may have dysfunctional beta cells, resulting in decreased insulin secretion, or their muscle and adipose cells may be resistant to the effects of insulin, resulting in a decreased ability of these cells to take up and metabolize glucose. In both cases, the levels of glucose in the blood increase, causing hyperglycemia (high blood sugar). As glucose accumulates in the blood, excess levels of this sugar are excreted in the urine. Because of greater amounts of glucose in the urine, more water is excreted with it, causing an increase in urinary volume and frequency of urination as well as thirst. (The name diabetes mellitus refers to these symptoms: diabetes, from the Greek diabainein, meaning “to pass through,” describes the copious urination, and mellitus, from the Latin meaning “sweetened with honey,” refers to sugar in the urine.) Other symptoms of diabetes include itching, hunger, weight loss, and weakness.
What is the role of beta cells in diabetes?
Beta cells secrete insulin, a well-characterized hormone that plays an important role in regulating glucose metabolism. There are two major forms of the disease. Type 1 diabetes, formerly referred to as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) or juvenile-onset diabetes, usually arises in childhood.
What percentage of people with diabetes are adults?
Type 1 diabetes accounts for about 5 to 10 percent of cases of diabetes. Most cases of type 1 diabetes develop in children or adolescents, but about 20 percent of new patients are adults.
Why does urine have more water than glucose?
As glucose accumulates in the blood, excess levels of this sugar are excreted in the urine. Because of greater amounts of glucose in the urine, more water is excreted with it, causing an increase in urinary volume and frequency of urination as well as thirst.
Is type 2 diabetes asymptomatic?
Many patients with type 2 diabetes are asymptomatic, and they are often diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when routine measurements reveal high blood glucose concentrations. In some patients the presence of one or more symptoms associated with the long-term complications of diabetes leads to a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
What is the meaning of diabetes mellitus?
The term diabetes is the shortened version of the full name diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus is derived from the Greek word diabetes meaning siphon - to pass through and the Latin word mellitus meaning honeyed or sweet. This is because in diabetes excess sugar is found in blood as well as the urine. It was known in the 17th century as the “pissing evil”.
Who was the first person to describe diabetes mellitus?
He also identified diabetic gangrene. Avicenna was the first to describe diabetes insipidus very precisely. It was much later in the 18th and 19th century that Johann Peter Frank (1745–1821) differentiated between diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus.
Why is diabetes called the "pissing evil"?
This is because in diabetes excess sugar is found in blood as well as the urine. It was known in the 17th century as the “pissing evil”. The term diabetes was probably coined by Apollonius of Memphis around 250 BC. Diabetes is first recorded in English, in the form diabete, in a medical text written around 1425.
When was insulin discovered?
Discovery of insulin. In 1921 Sir Frederick Grant Banting and Charles Herbert Best repeated the work of Von Mering and Minkowski and went ahead to demonstrate that they could reverse induced diabetes in dogs by giving them an extract from the pancreatic islets of Langerhans of healthy dogs.
Why did Thomas Willis add the word "mellitus" to the word "diabetes"?
It was in 1675 that Thomas Willis added the word “'mellitus'” to the word diabetes. This was because of the sweet taste of the urine. This sweet taste had been noticed in urine by the ancient Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians, Indians, and Persians as is evident from their literature. History of Diabetes. Play.
When was Metabolic Syndrome discovered?
Metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome, that diabetes mellitus forms a part of was discovered by Dr Gerald Reaven's in 1988. Banting was honored by World Diabetes Day which is held on his birthday, November 14 staring 2007.
Who purified insulin from cows?
Banting, Best, and their chemist colleague Collip purified the hormone insulin from pancreases of cows at the University of Toronto. This led to the availability of an effective treatment for diabetes in 1922.
What age does diabetes develop?
Type 2 diabetes, the more common type, can develop at any age, though it's more common in people older than 40.
What causes diabetes and prediabetes?
In prediabetes — which can lead to type 2 diabetes — and in type 2 diabetes, your cells become resistant to the action of insulin, and your pancreas is unable to make enough insulin to overcome this resistance.
Why does gestational diabetes cause low blood sugar?
Sometimes babies of mothers with gestational diabetes develop low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) shortly after birth because their own insulin production is high. Prompt feedings and sometimes an intravenous glucose solution can return the baby's blood sugar level to normal.
Why can't my pancreas keep up with my insulin?
When this happens, too little glucose gets into your cells and too much stays in your blood, resulting in gestational diabetes.
What is the risk of developing type 1 diabetes?
The presence of damaging immune system cells (autoantibodies). Sometimes family members of people with type 1 diabetes are tested for the presence of diabetes autoantibodies. If you have these autoantibodies, you have an increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes. But not everyone who has these autoantibodies develops diabetes.
Why is glucose important for the body?
Glucose is vital to your health because it's an important source of energy for the cells that make up your muscles and tissues. It's also your brain's main source of fuel.
What are the symptoms of type 1 diabetes?
Some of the signs and symptoms of type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes are: Presence of ketones in the urine (ketones are a byproduct of the breakdown of muscle and fat that happens when there's not enough available insulin) Frequent infections, such as gums or skin infections and vaginal infections.
What is the name of the disease that is characterized by excessive sugar in urine?
Now usually restricted to diabetes mellitus, which is characterized by an excessive quantity of sugar in the urine. An old common native name for it was pissing evil. In classical Greek, diabainein meant "to stand or walk with the legs apart," and diabetes meant "a drafting compass," from the position of the legs.
What does "di" mean in Greek?
before vowels, di-, word-forming element meaning "through, in different directions, between," also often merely intensive, "thoroughly, entirely," from Greek dia "through; throughout," probably cognate with bi- and related to duo "two" (from PIE root *dwo- "two") with a base sense of "twice."
What is the medical term for a set of affections characterized by abnormal discharge of urine?
diabetes (n.) medical name of a set of affections characterized by abnormal discharge of urine, 1560s, from medical Latin diabetes , from late Greek diabetes "excessive discharge of urine" (so named by Aretaeus the Cappadocian, physician of Alexandria, 2c.), literally "a passer-through, siphon," from diabainein "to pass through," from dia "through" ...
Where did the word "diabetes" come from?
Diabetes mellitus is taken from the Greek word Diabetes, meaning siphon - to pass through and the Latin word mellitusmeaning sweet. A review of the history shows that the term "diabetes" was first used by Apollonius of Memphis around 250 to 300 BC.
What is DM in diabetes?
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease, involving inappropriately elevated blood glucose levels. DM has several categories, including type 1, type 2, maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY), gestational diabetes, neonatal diabetes, and secondary causes due to endocrinopathies, steroid use, etc. The main subtypes of DM are Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), which classically result from defective insulin secretion (T1DM) and/or action (T2DM). T1DM presents in children or adolescents, while T2DM is thought to affect middle-aged and older adults who have prolonged hyperglycemia due to poor lifestyle and dietary choices. The pathogenesis for T1DM and T2DM is drastically different, and therefore each type has various etiologies, presentations, and treatments.
Who discovered the sweet nature of urine?
Ancient Greek, Indian, Egyptian civilizations discovered the sweet nature of urine in this condition, and hence the propagation of the word Diabetes Mellitus came into being. Mering and Minkowski, in 1889, discovered the role of the pancreas in the pathogenesis of Diabetes.
When was insulin first used in cows?
In 1922 Banting, Best, and Collip purified the hormone insulin from the pancreas of cows at the University of Toronto, leading to the availability of an effective treatment for Diabetes in 1922.
What is the difference between T1DM and T2DM?
T1DM presents in children or adolescents, while T2DM is thought to affect middle-aged and older adults who have prolonged hyperglycemia due to poor lifestyle and dietary choices. The pathogenesis for T1DM and T2DM is drastically different, and therefore each type has various etiologies, presentations, and treatments.

Origin of The Term ‘Diabetes’
- The term diabetes is the shortened version of the full name diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus is derived from the Greek word diabetes meaning siphon - to pass through and the Latin word mellitusmeaning honeyed or sweet. This is because in diabetes excess sugar is found in blood as well as the urine. It was known in the 17th century as the “pissi...
History of The Treatment of Diabetes
- Sushruta, Arataeus, and Thomas Willis were the early pioneers of the treatment of diabetes. Greek physicians prescribed exercise - preferably on horseback to alleviate excess urination. Some other forms of therapy applied to diabetes include wine, overfeeding to compensate for loss of fluid weight, starvation diet, etc. In 1776, Matthew Dobson confirmed that the sweet taste of urine of …
Discovery of The Role of The Pancreas
- Joseph von Mering and Oskar Minkowski in 1889 discovered the role of pancreas in diabetes. They found that dogs whose pancreas was removed developed all the signs and symptoms of diabetes and died shortly afterwards. In 1910, Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer found that diabetes resulted from lack of insulin. He termed the chemical regulating blood sugar as insulin …
Starvation Treatment
- In 1919 Dr. Frederick Allen of the Rockefeller Institute in New York published his “Total Dietary Regulations in the Treatment of Diabetes” that introduced a therapy of strict dieting or starvation treatment – as a way to manage diabetes.
Discovery of Insulin
- In 1921 Sir Frederick Grant Banting and Charles Herbert Best repeated the work of Von Mering and Minkowski and went ahead to demonstrate that they could reverse induced diabetes in dogs by giving them an extract from the pancreatic islets of Langerhans of healthy dogs. Banting, Best, and their chemist colleague Collip purified the hormone insulin from pancreases of cows at the …
Differentiating Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes
- It was in 1936 that Sir Harold Percival (Harry) Himsworth in his published work differentiated type 1 and 2 diabetes as different entities.
Biosynthetic Human Insulin
- In 1982 the first biosynthetic human insulin – Humulin – that is identical in chemical structure to human insulin and can be mass produced was approved to market in several countries.
Metabolic Syndrome
- Metabolic syndrome, that diabetes mellitus forms a part of was discovered by Dr Gerald Reaven's in 1988. Banting was honored by World Diabetes Day which is held on his birthday, November 14 staring 2007.
Further Reading