How did diabetes patients survive before the invention of insulin?

Ancient India was at the forefront of knowledge and distinction between type I and type II diabetes. 

 

The ancient Indians used ants to recognize the presence of diabetes, since elevated glucose levels caused patients' urine to have a high concentration of sugar. The ants were attracted to urine rich in sugar, and for this reason the Indians called the disease with the diabetes term “madhumeha”, or honey urine.

The Indians knew that rich, obese patients had a different form of diabetes than younger, leaner ones. Increased physical activity helped heavier patients, but had no treatment effect in thinner patients. 

 

They also knew that both types of diabetes were quite rare. Increased physical activity, exercise, and dietary changes were used in conjunction with traditional Ayurvedic medicine. Bitter gourd, fenugreek, curcumin, and other herbs were also used. Even today, these treatments are still used in India along with other types of medicine. Ancient India managed to treat type II diabetes, but could not do much for type I, except relieve pain, since they did not have the means to produce insulin,


Thanks to the work of two ancient Indian physicians, Sushruta (700 BC) and Charaka (400 BC), we can assume that many Type II diabetes patients survived many decades after diagnosis. The idea of ​​increasing physical activity and eating foods that promote weight loss was well understood as a way to maintain good health. It was known that food rich in fat was preferable to food with a higher sugar content. The difference between type I and type II diabetes would not be recognized until the 1930s, already in the middle of the modern era. The work of the ancient Indians on the treatment of diabetes was perhaps the most advanced until the advent of insulin in the 1920s. Although diabetes is now better understood.

If insulin is a hormone, where does the insulin that diabetics inject come from? - Ask me anything
Hello, at first insulin was extracted from the pancreas of pigs because it was practically the same as that of humans except for one amino acid, however this
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