Willi Smith
Three Interesting Facts About Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes mellitus, affectionately referred to as just “diabetes” by almost everyone who has ever heard of the disease, is a condition you would not want to wish upon your worst enemy. Aside from forcing you to change almost every aspect of your lifestyle (say goodbye to All-You-Can-Eat wing night), it could lead to a series of unfortunate complications, such as having your foot cut off and that pesky little thing known as death. Terrifying aspects of a disease that can strike without warning aside, here are some interesting facts overlooked by almost everyone.
Have you ever wondered what the mellitus tacked on to the end of diabetes actually means? Aside from being a fancy word to make it sound more medical-y, it actually has an interesting albeit slightly disturbing history to it. In 1675, a doctor by the name of Thomas Willis, added the term, which is the Latin word for “honey,” due to the taste of the urine diabetes patients being deemed sweet. Although not the first person to notice this (it’s been known for well over a thousand years), the reason for its honey-sweet taste is courtesy of Matthew Dobson, who in 1776 discovered its source to be a build-up of a specific kind of sugar in the urine and blood.
Diabetes is all about urine. But what does that name actually mean? Like many medical terms, its history and meaning lies in the language of the ancient Greeks. It was coined by Aretaeus the Cappadocian, a second-century AD physician who noticed that those with the condition urinated frequently and gave off the appearance of “leaking water.” He named it diabetes, which comes from the Greek word διαβαίνειν, which when parsed is composed of the prefix “dia,” meaning “across or apart, “ and “bainein,” meaning “to walk or stand.” When put together it means “to straddle,” with the noun form meaning “one who straddles” (diabētēs).
To be more specific, the word also means “compass” or “siphon.” It wasn’t until 1425 when the term “diabete” was used to describe the condition in English.
Despite being highly manageable today, the ancients who first discovered the condition considered it to be an automatic death sentence. According to Victor Corneliu Medvei in his book The History of Clinical Endocrinology, despite Aretaeus’ attempts at treating the disease, he considered a diagnosis of this new condition to result in a life that is “short, disgusting and painful.”
In short, ancient conceptions of diabetes can be summed up in two words: urine and pain.
More great information on diabetes can be found at On Top of My Diabetes.
About the Author
Writer and content producer for On Top of My Diabetes.
Sources: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=39756
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes
willi smith
|
|
Will Smith – Greatest Hits $7.94 All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed…. |
|
|
Big Willie Style $0.94 Is Will Smith an important rapper? The kind that deserves the awards, the honors, the accolades that the music industry foists upon him? Well, no. The words corny and safe might be applicable when describing the artist formerly known as the Fresh Prince. But dig this: corny and safe as he may be, why can’t you stop singing “Getting Jiggy wit It” or why does your child love “Just the Two of Us,” Sm… |
|
|
Best Classics 100 $11.00 Japanese 6 CD set. Details TBA. 2005…. |
|
|
The Virgin Suicides $2.99 … |
|
|
Jeepers Creepers $2.99 … |
|
|
The Virgin Suicides $9.99 … |
|
|
WOMEN’S WILLI SMITH BLUE JEANS NWT SIZE 4 $36.99 These are a “DELIGHTFUL” pair of jeans for that young woman out there looking to travel in style!!!… |
|
|
Introducing Religion: Essays in Honor of Jonathan Z. Smith $35.92 To mark the contribution of one of the most influential theorists of religion, thirty-one leading scholars of religion from around the world put their minds together to work on problems of introducing religion: as a category of human social practices, as a term that must be subject to scholarly theorizing, as a subject that must be carefully presented to students in the classroom. The claim of thi… |
|
|
Lectures on the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages $17.04 This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts – the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bri… |
|
|
Webst,Taxation of Bus Entities … |
Tags: pattern, sewing, willi smith, willi smith clothes, willi smith clothing, willi smith clothing line, willi smith makeup
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 21st, 1993 at 8:06 am and is filed under Clothing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.