Diabetes is not a new disease. In fact, it has been recognized for thousands of years. And has likely been around a lot longer than that. But, the technology we use to diagnose and treat it is quite new. Blood glucose monitors only came around in the 70s. Chemical tests for urine were designed several decades prior to that. So how on Earth did people get diagnosed with diabetes before these methods were created? I have two words for you: Water Tasters.
Sweet urine
Over the centuries, many different cultures figured out that people who had diabetes expelled sweet urine.
Ancient Egyptians discovered that ants were attracted to the urine of people with diabetes.
The Korean, Japanese, and Chinese terms for diabetes all translated to some version of “sugar urine disease”.
In India, it was called “Madhumeha”, with “madhu” meaning “honey”. The full word roughly translates to “sweet urine”.
In the Middle Ages, diabetes was commonly referred to as “the pissing evil”.
Around the world, multiple cultures were noticing that patients with diabetes had sweeter urine than everyone else.
Why people with diabetes have sweet urine
Diabetes is a disease that has to do with the hormone insulin. In people with type 1 diabetes, their bodies can no longer produce insulin at all. For people with type 2, their bodies either cannot produce enough insulin or cannot utilize it properly.
Either way, insulin is needed for our cells to be able to use glucose. Without insulin, glucose just floats around in our bloodstream, not being used for energy as intended. Instead, it stays in the bloodstream, causing damage to important things like organs, capillaries, and, well, everything.
The human body is smart though. It will try its hardest to balance the blood glucose level even without insulin.
So, it expels the excess glucose in any way it can.
Glucose is sent out via urine and sweat. The body wants to remove even more so you become thirsty. Drink more water, and get rid of more glucose. More glucose means that the urine is noticeably sweet.
Likewise, the body recognizes the lack of energy and tries to combat that with hunger. Another symptom of diabetes is extreme hunger. So, you eat and eat, but no matter how much you eat, the glucose you’re consuming is not converting to energy as it should.
Your body does its best, but it simply can’t keep up.
And you thought your job was bad
Sweet urine has always been one of the first recognized symptoms of diabetes.
Some cultures tested for diabetes by seeing if ants were attracted to the person’s urine.
Other cultures had a different approach. They used water tasters.
Let’s just say “water taster” is a nice way of putting it. Of course, they were actually tasting other people’s urine.
When someone was suspected of having diabetes, water tasters would taste the person’s urine and determine if it was sweet or not.
This is where the terms “mellitus” and “insipidus” come from. The taste of urine.
Mellitus is Latin for “honey” and insipidus is Latin for “not tasty” or “lacking flavor”.
One would think that all urine would be “not tasty”. The fact that the taste of urine from a person with diabetes was compared to honey says a lot about how much sugar was passing through their system.
Some used water tasters, but often the physician himself would do the taste testing.
Uroscopy (the study of urine to diagnose medical conditions) was commonly used for many diseases in the Middle Ages. Doctors even created urine flavor charts to help them determine what was wrong with patients.
Physicians continued to taste patients’ urine in this manner well into the 1800s.
The symptoms haven’t changed
Thankfully, the days of water tasters are long gone. But those same symptoms are often the first clue to a diabetes diagnosis today.
Extreme thirst and frequent urination are still two of the most common symptoms.
Exhaustion and unexpected weight loss are also high on the list. This is because glucose is unable to be used without insulin. No glucose means no energy. Which, of course, means exhaustion. And with glucose being locked out, the body has nothing to burn for basic functions, so it starts burning things that it normally wouldn’t. That causes weight loss.
If you notice any of these symptoms in yourself or someone else, maybe skip the urine taste test…
But you should see a doctor to get a simple finger poke done.
Diabetes is serious and the symptoms should not be ignored. Know the symptoms:
Did you know anything about how diabetes was diagnosed before all of our current technology? How were you diagnosed? Let us know in the comments!
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