Diabetes: The Biography

Diabetes is a disease with a fascinating history and one that has been growing dramatically with urbanization. According to the World Health Authority, it now affects 4.6% of adults over 20, reaching 30% in the over 35s in some populations. It is one of the most serious and widespread diseases today. But the general perception of diabetes is quite different. At the beginning of the 20th century, diabetes sufferers mostly tended to be middle-aged and overweight, and could live tolerably well with the disease for a couple of decades, but when it occasionally struck younger people, it could be fatal within a few months. The development of insulin in the early 1920s dramatically changed things for these younger patients. But that story of the success of modern medicine has tended to dominate public perception, so that diabetes is regarded as a relatively minor illness. Sadly, that is far from the case, and diabetes can produce complications affecting many different organs. Robert Tattersall, a leading authority on diabetes, describes the story of the disease from the ancient writings of Galen and Avicenna to the recognition of sugar in the urine of diabetics in the 18th century, the identification of pancreatic diabetes in 1889, the discovery of insulin in the early 20th century, the ensuing optimism, and the subsequent despair as the complexity of this now chronic illness among its increasing number of young patients became apparent. Yet new drugs are being developed, as well as new approaches to management that give hope for the future. Diabetes affects many of us directly or indirectly through friends and relatives. This book gives an authoritative and engaging account of the long history and changing perceptions of a disease that now dominates the concerns of health professionals in the developed world. Diabetes: the biography is part of the Oxford series, Biographies of Diseases , edited by William and Helen Bynum. In each individual volume an expert historian or clinician tells the story of a particular disease or condition throughout history - not only in terms of growing medical understanding of its nature and cure, but also shifting social and cultural attitudes, and changes in the meaning of the name of the disease itself. Diabetes is a familiar disease growing rapidly in the modern world, so highly topical Fascinating mixture of social and cultural history and the development of medicine Robert Tattersall is a leading medical authority on the disease Part of the Biographies of Diseases series, edited by William and Helen Bynum Robert Tattersall , Special Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Nottingham CONTENTS 1: The pissing evil: defining the disease 2: Unravelling the role of the pancreas 3: Insulin: a force of magical activity 4: The dark ages: once daily insulins, free diets, and a sense of doom 5: Treating long term complications in the eyes, kidenys, and nerves 6: Adult onset diabetes and the long awaited oral treatment 7: At the laboratory bench: new insulins and hopes of a cure for type 1 diabetes 8: The pharmaceutical era: a pill for everything 9: Diabetes becomes epidemic: the penalty of progress Further reading