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Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is a condition that occurs when your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high.

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Then vs. Now: The History of Insulin Therapy for Diabetes
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Then vs. Now: The History of Insulin Therapy for Diabetes

Diabetes was described in ancient Egyptian medical texts — yet insulin therapy didn’t exist until the 1900s.

Sanjai Sinha, MD profile image

Reviewed by Sanjai Sinha, MD

Updated on February 9, 2025

Insulin therapy is key for treating diabetes today, but its discovery and invention were fairly recent. In this video, learn how people managed diabetes before the invention of insulin therapy, the unusual way that insulin was discovered, and the various changes to insulin therapy to make it more effective and convenient over the years.

You can read more about the different types of insulin to treat diabetes here.

References

American Diabetes Association. (2019). The history of a wonderful thing we call insulin.

Eli Lilly. (2021). Celebrating the first century of the world’s first life-saving drug.

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