50 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Diabetes | Amazing Facts 4U
- The word “diabetes” is Greek for “siphon,” which refers to the copious urine of uncontrolled diabetes. “Mellitus” is Latin for “honey” or “sweet,” a name added when physicians discovered that the urine from people with diabetes is sweet with glucose.
- The name “diabetes” is attributed to the famed Greek physician Aretaeus of Cappadocia who practiced in the first century A.D. He believed that diabetes was caused by snakebite.
- The earliest recorded mention of a disease that can be recognized as diabetes is found in the Ebers papyrus (1500 B.C).
- William Cullen (1710-1790), a professor of chemistry and medicine in Scotland, is responsible for adding the term “Mellitus” (“sweet” or “honey-like”) to the word diabetes.
- About one-third of all people with diabetes do not know they have the disease. Type 2 diabetes often does not have any symptoms.
- Diabetes mellitus is a general name that encompasses several types of diabetes, including Type 1, Type 2, gestational, and variations such as maturity-onset diabetes in the young (MODY) and latent autoimmune diabetes of adulthood (LADA). What they all have in common is the inability to self-regulate levels of blood glucose (cellular fuel) in the body.
- A normal fasting (no food for 8 hours) blood sugar level is between 70 and 100 mg/dL. A normal blood sugar level two hours after eating is less than 140 mg/dL.
- Diabetes is diagnosed by 2 consecutive fasting blood glucose tests that are equal to or greater than 125 mg/dL OR any random blood glucose that is greater than 200 mg/dL OR an A1c test that is equal to or greater than 6.5 percent. A1c is a blood test that gives a three-month average of blood sugars OR A two-hour oral glucose tolerance test with any value over 200 mg/dL.
- Prediabetes indicates you carry a risk to develop diabetes. It is diagnosed by any one of the following: A fasting blood glucose in between 100-125 mg/dL OR an A1c between 5.7 – 6.4 percent OR any value between 140 mg/dL and 200 mg/dL during a two-hour oral glucose tolerance test.
- In 1889, Oskar Minkowski (1858-191931) discovered the link between diabetes and the pancreas when a dog from which he removed the pancreas developed diabetes.
- Insulin was coined from the Latin insula (“island”) because the hormone is secreted by the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas.
- Before the discovery of insulin, surgeons rarely operated on diabetic patients with gangrene because the patients typically would not heal and would inevitably die.
- Insulin was first isolated at the University of Toronto by a team led by scientist Frederick Banting from Ox in 1921. They then went on to give insulin to dozens of dying children and stood back to watch the miracles. The following year, Banting was granted the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
- Banting and his team could have potentially made billions from insulin discovery but they chose to sell the patent to the University of Toronto for just half a dollar.
- Initially, the insulin was extracted from the pancreas of a cow (bovine) or pig (porcine). Today’s insulins are created in the lab, cultured from bacteria and yeast through recombinant DNA.
- Before the discovery of insulin, physicians would often put their patients on starvation or semi-starvation diets, recommending they eat only foods such as oatmeal.
- In 1942, the first oral type 2 diabetes medication was identified, a sulfonylurea.
- Obesity has led to a dramatic increase in Type 2 diabetes. Approximately 90% of people with Type 2 diabetes are found to be obese. Excess abdominal fat, is a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes.
- Overweight individuals are more prone to develop diabetes because more fat requires more insulin, fat cells release free fatty acids which interfere with glucose metabolism, and overweight people have fewer available insulin receptors.
- Smoking can increase diabetes risk by constricting blood vessels, raising blood pressure, and stimulating the release of catecholamines (fight-or-flight hormones), which promote insulin resistance.
- Gestational diabetes occurs in about 200,000 or 7% of U.S. pregnancies annually.
- Diabetes in the United States alone costs $200 billion annually. This figure includes direct medical costs, such as insulin, amputations, and hospitalizations as well as indirect costs, such as lost productivity, early retirement, and disability.
- Some researchers have found links between the onset of Type 1 diabetes and the contracting of a virus, especially the mumps or Coxsackie virus.
- African-Americans and Hispanics have a much higher rate of Type 2 diabetes than whites. There are 74 cases per 1,000 for African-Americans, 61 cases for Hispanics, and 36 cases for whites. Approximately one in three African-American women between the ages of 65-74 have diabetes.
- Diabetes in Asians is five times the rate of the white population. Those with severe diabetes run the risk of slipping into diabetic coma either due to very high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) or too low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).
- One of the worst complication of diabetes is diabetic neuropathy, which is damage to the blood vessels that supply the nerves presenting itself as a numb, painful, tingling sensation, particularly in the feet. Often, diabetics have peripheral arterial disease which restricts blood-flow to the feet. The skin becomes dry and sensitive, and is more likely to develop ulcers. The lack of circulation makes infection difficult to fight off and even with prompt medical treatment, amputation is often necessary.
- Diabetes is the main cause of blindness in individuals aged 20-75 . Early detection and treatment could prevent up to 90% of cases of blindness that are related to diabetes.
- Approximately 11% of all Americans aged 65-74 have diabetes. About 20% of those over 75 years old have diabetes, and nearly half of them are unaware they have the disease.
- Approximately 25 million U.S. residents have been diagnosed with diabetes, which is nearly 10% of the estimated 250 million people suffering from diabetes worldwide. Only about five percent of all people with diabetes have type 1 diabetes.
- Men with diabetes are at a greater risk for erectile dysfunction (ED) than non-diabetic men. Approximately 50-60% of men with diabetes over the age of 50 have problems with ED. Additionally, ED becomes a problem for diabetic men about 10 to 15 years earlier than a non-diabetic man.
- Those with diabetes are more likely to develop carpal tunnel syndrome and tarsal tunnel syndrome.
- Individuals with diabetes are at much greater risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia than are non-diabetics, though the reasons are unknown.
- Individuals with diabetes are more susceptible to complications of flu and pneumonia and are six times more likely to be hospitalized for these problems than non-diabetics.
- Experts believe that diabetes decreases life expectancy by five to 10 years.
- Men have a higher risk of death from diabetes than women.
- Research has found that babies who breastfeed at least three months had a lower incidence of Type 1 diabetes and may be less likely to become obese as adults.
- Women with diabetes are more likely to develop vaginal infections than are non-diabetics because of their elevated glucose levels.
- Diabetics have a higher risk of gingivitis than non-diabetics, which may lead to bone and tooth loss.
- Diabetes has been reported in horses, ferrets, and ground squirrels. In environments where animals are liberally fed, diabetes has been reported in dolphins, foxes, and even a hippopotamus.
- Inhaled insulin is an emerging twenty-first century option for people with Type 1 diabetes. Companies are also working on an insulin tablet that can be given under the tongue.
- The soluble fiber in oatmeal helps control blood glucose levels.
- The human body is equipped with 60,000 miles of blood vessels and wired with 100,000 miles of nerve fibers. Diabetes often blocks the cardiovascular system and deadens nerves, causing 80% of deaths among patients with diabetes.
- India is the diabetes capital of the world with over 40 million people with diabetes. By 2025, this number is expected to swell to 70 million, meaning every fifth diabetic in the world would be Indian.
- Diabetes causes 6 deaths every minute and one in 20 deaths in the world is due to the condition. Every year it is estimated that 3.5 million people in the world die due to the diabetes or its related causes.
- Diabetes is responsible for over one million amputations each year, a large percentage of cataracts, and at least 5% of blindness worldwide.
- 44% of all kidney failure cases are caused by diabetes nephropathy.
- Certain diseases such as cystic fibrosis, pancreatitis, hemochromatosis, and Cushing’s syndrome may cause pancreatic beta cell destruction that leads to diabetes.
- The five countries with the highest percentage of diabetes are Nauru, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
- In 1969, Ames Diagnostics came up with the first portable blood glucose meter called the Ames Reflectance Meter (ARM). Ames later became a part of Bayer.
- Diabetes insipidus (water diabetes) is a condition completely different from diabetes mellitus characterized by a problem with the kidneys in which the kidneys are unable to concentrate urine adequately due to a deficiency in the antidiuretic hormone (ADH).
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