Diabetes Innovations

  • Sugar in Urine

    "Water Tasters" tasted urine of people suspected to have diabetes. If the urine tasted sweet, then they were diagnosed with diabetes. Thus mellitus, meaning honey, was added to the name of diabetes.
  • Diet with Diabetes

    Physicians began to realize that dietary changes could help manage diabetes. They told people to eat lots of animal fat and meat or consume a lot of sugar.
  • Pancreas Linked to Diabetes

    Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering found that removing a pancreas from a dog caused the dog to develop diabetes.
  • Pancreatic Fluids

    George Zuelzer found that injecting pancreatic fluids into a diabetic patient could help them control their diadetes.
  • Book: Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus

    Elliot Joslin wrote this book explaining that a fasting diet combined with regular exercise could significantly decrease the risk of death with people with diabetes.
  • Insulin Usage

    Frederick Banting first used insulin to treat diabetes in 1920 and received the Nobel Prize for successfully treating a diabetic patient in 1922
  • Insulin Production

    By 1923, insulin was being commercially being produced to treat diabetes
  • Insulin Improvement

    Protamine zinc insulin was introduced as a better form of insulin for diabetics
  • Insulin Improvements pt. 2

    Lente insulins were used as a human made form of insulin.