Recognising diabetes by sweet urine
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Did Indian physicians describe diabetes and its sweet urine long before Europe did in 1674?
India first (well documented)Medicine & health
Indian claim
The Charaka and Sushruta Samhitas describe madhumeha, 'honey urine', a disease in which urine is sweet and attracts ants, and separate a form in thin people from one linked to overeating and obesity.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- The sweet-urine observation, including ants being drawn to it, is in both classical Ayurvedic texts.
- The texts' two types of patient are often compared to type 1 and type 2 diabetes, although that is a modern reading.
Commonly credited to
Thomas Willis in England noted the sweet taste of diabetic urine in 1674 and Matthew Dobson showed in 1776 that it contained sugar.
Evidence for the other claim
- The Egyptian Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550 BCE) is sometimes said to describe diabetes, but it mentions only passing too much urine, which is not specific to diabetes, so many historians doubt that reading.
- Aretaeus of Cappadocia (2nd century CE) named and described 'diabetes' but did not note sweet urine.
What historians and scientists say
Historians of medicine credit Indian physicians with the first known description of sweet urine in diabetes. Europe recognised it about 1,500 years later.