American Diabetes Alert Day is observed annually on the fourth Tuesday of March and this year, it falls on March 25.
It is aimed at raising awareness about the risks and symptoms associated with diabetes among the American public. The holiday is sponsored by the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes occurs when the body’s blood glucose level is too high.
This is caused by a deficiency in the insulin produced by the body, which is the hormone that lets glucose enter cells and be used as energy. Excess glucose in the blood can lead to several health problems. The most common types of diabetes are Type 1, Type 2, and gestational diabetes.
The first known mention of diabetes symptoms can be dated back to 1552 B.C. in Egypt, where physician Hesy-Ra listed frequent urination as a symptom of a disease that also caused both emaciation and the production of urine that attracted ants. In 150 A.D., Greek physician Arateus described the disease we now know to be diabetes to be “the melting down of flesh and limbs into urine.” The presence of ‘sweetness’ in the urine led to the disease being named ‘Diabetes Mellitus’ in 1675.
It was in the 18th and 19th centuries when physicians began to realize that dietary changes could help in the regulation of diabetes. Elliott Joslin published “The Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus” in 1916, recommending a fasting diet and regular exercise for blood sugar control. Frederick Banting, a Canadian physician, was the first to think of using insulin to treat diabetes in 1920.
Today, insulin is used to treat type 1 diabetes. Other medical advancements have allowed patients to check their blood sugar levels at home and precisely regularize them using insulin, medication, exercise, and diet. Diabetes currently affects about 34.2 million Americans, out of which 7.2 million don’t even know that they suffer from the illness. To make matters worse, approximately 88 million people have prediabetes, a condition characterized by high blood sugar levels that aren’t high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.
The American Diabetes Alert Day was first observed in 1988 to intimate the American public about the disease and the risk of development.
