The Pissing Evil - urine copious in quantity and sweet on the palate
"If a man let his owne uryn drop upon his feete in the mornynge, it is good agaynst all evyll."
So concluded an anonymous Renaissance England physician.
Peeing on your own feet was merely one of many benefits of urine, including making apple trees bear sweeter fruit, being a treatment for gout and many skin ailments.
Plus analyzing urine was one of the only ways physicians could scope out some of the inner workings of the body.
So when pissing went wrong, the disease behind this evil was naturally referred to as "the Pissing Evil ".
“The Pissing Evil" was a common illness the Middle Ages. Those afflicted tended to urinate a great deal. It almost seemed as if their bodies were dissolving internally and wasting away, and then being pissed away in their urine. A notion which was later to be proven scientifically completely correct.
Of course if these were the only criteria then many beer drinkers would qualify. There was one additional requirement. The urine had to be sweet tasting !
Sweet and sour urine is not a concept explored much in modern medicine. But ancient physicians new all about it. Although drinking your own urine is making a comeback as an alternative remedy in some Eastern Religions ( Buddha was once such an ascetic that he ate only one grain of rice a day, and drank his own urine to survive) and some holistic health circles, it was the Greeks who first recorded sweet urine.
Alexander the Great's family physician takes notes...
'For the piss of those that are sick of this Disease is sweet like honey
Rumor has it that observant Greek physicians noted that ants were more than usually attracted to the urine of people with this disorder.
Finally Arataues of Cappodicia ( one – time personal physician to Alexander the Great, a famous epileptic ) had to courage to do the “taste test”.
He noted that the urine of Pissing Evil People was much sweeter than the taste of normal urine. (How and where he acquired his gastronomic repertoire is not recorded for posterity.)
The Greeks called the condition “diabetes mellitus” . Mellitus means “to pass through” (like the Melita coffee filter ), because the diabetics both drank and urinated so much that liquids just seemed “to pass through” them. There is actually another type of diabetes, referred to as Diabetes Insipidus, meaning sour tasting or “insipid” urine. This is a rarer disease caused by disorders of the pituitary gland. Bottoms up !
Finally Arataues of Cappodicia ( one – time personal physician to Alexander the Great, a famous epileptic ) had to courage to do the “taste test”.
He noted that the urine of Pissing Evil People was much sweeter than the taste of normal urine. (How and where he acquired his gastronomic repertoire is not recorded for posterity.)
The Greeks called the condition “diabetes mellitus” . Mellitus means “to pass through” (like the Melita coffee filter ), because the diabetics both drank and urinated so much that liquids just seemed “to pass through” them. There is actually another type of diabetes, referred to as Diabetes Insipidus, meaning sour tasting or “insipid” urine. This is a rarer disease caused by disorders of the pituitary gland. Bottoms up !
Canadian Content
It was two Canadian scientists who first discovered that Diabetes Mellitus is caused by a lack of the hormone called insulin.
Insulin is needed by the body to absorb sugar from the diet. Diabetics who do not possess insulin have lost the ability to absorb sugar, and so the sugar is excreted and lost in their urine.
Insulin is produced in the pancreas, ( an organ hidden behind the stomach, that in cows is sold as sweetbreads) although the majority of the pancreas has nothing to do with insulin. The only insulin producing cells are so minute that they appear to be like tiny islands lost in the great ocean of the pancreas.
Usually these islands are referred to as the Islets of Langerhans, after the anatomist ( or “explorer”) who discovered them. Since the Islets of Langerhans are the only place in the body where insulin is manufactured, anything which damages the Islets can cause diabetes.
This means that there is not just one cause of type diabetes -- there are many. Some people are genetically pre-disposed towards diabetes. This is particularly true if your parents were older when you were conceived. More diabetics also seem to be borne in the Autumn months.
Many cases of diabetes appear to be triggered by viral infections. The viruses which cause diabetes may include the Mumps and German Measles viruses.
Toxins in the environment can also cause diabetes. One type of rat poison can predictably cause diabetes.
Insulin is needed by the body to absorb sugar from the diet. Diabetics who do not possess insulin have lost the ability to absorb sugar, and so the sugar is excreted and lost in their urine.
Insulin is produced in the pancreas, ( an organ hidden behind the stomach, that in cows is sold as sweetbreads) although the majority of the pancreas has nothing to do with insulin. The only insulin producing cells are so minute that they appear to be like tiny islands lost in the great ocean of the pancreas.
Usually these islands are referred to as the Islets of Langerhans, after the anatomist ( or “explorer”) who discovered them. Since the Islets of Langerhans are the only place in the body where insulin is manufactured, anything which damages the Islets can cause diabetes.
This means that there is not just one cause of type diabetes -- there are many. Some people are genetically pre-disposed towards diabetes. This is particularly true if your parents were older when you were conceived. More diabetics also seem to be borne in the Autumn months.
Many cases of diabetes appear to be triggered by viral infections. The viruses which cause diabetes may include the Mumps and German Measles viruses.
Toxins in the environment can also cause diabetes. One type of rat poison can predictably cause diabetes.
Rat poison and smoked mutton cause diabetes
The rat poison discovery was not done as a scientific experiment --it would never get past the ethics committee. But many people who have attempted suicide by overdosing on the rat poison Vacor survived, but became diabetic forevermore.
Although not as toxic has rat poison, Smoked Icelandic Mutton is high in nitrosamines, a chemical group which preserves food but which can cause a riot of health problems. In Iceland it is a common custom to eat smoked mutton on New Years Eve. This has resulted in more diabetic children being born nine months down the road.
There are factors in the environment that we do not yet understand. Finland and Sardinia have the highest incidence of childhood diabetes in the world, but only have had a high rate of diabetes for the last twenty years. Diabetes is a rare condition in Western Samoa, but when the Samoans move to New Zealand the incidence rises over 700 percent almost immediately.
Whatever the cause of diabetes, it is certain to be an interesting an important medical challenge for the future. When we find a cure for all the different types of diabetes we will have finally found a way to rid the world of at least one evil.
Although not as toxic has rat poison, Smoked Icelandic Mutton is high in nitrosamines, a chemical group which preserves food but which can cause a riot of health problems. In Iceland it is a common custom to eat smoked mutton on New Years Eve. This has resulted in more diabetic children being born nine months down the road.
There are factors in the environment that we do not yet understand. Finland and Sardinia have the highest incidence of childhood diabetes in the world, but only have had a high rate of diabetes for the last twenty years. Diabetes is a rare condition in Western Samoa, but when the Samoans move to New Zealand the incidence rises over 700 percent almost immediately.
Whatever the cause of diabetes, it is certain to be an interesting an important medical challenge for the future. When we find a cure for all the different types of diabetes we will have finally found a way to rid the world of at least one evil.
Symptoms of Diabetes
Frequent trips to the bathroom:
Urination becomes more frequent when there is too much glucose in the blood.
Unquenchable Thirst:
drinking much more than usual, it could be a sign of diabetes, especially if it seems to go hand in hand with frequent urination.
Losing Weight Without Trying:
This symptom is more noticeable with Type 1 diabetes. Without insulin the body can't get glucose into the body for fuel. Muscle and fat start to break down instead.
Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes :
The above symptoms mostly refer to classical or Type 1 Diabetes.
Since it was discovered we have figured out that there is another type of Diabetes, which we call Type 2 Diabetes. People with Type 2 diabetes have insulin, but their body just cant seem to use it.
Type 2 diabetes is a lot like just getting old and fat, and the two go along with each other hand in hand. Many more people have Type 2 diabetes, but because they blend in with all the other aging fat people in the world we need to do tests to sort them out. Tasting urine would still work, but now we have blood tests which are better ( and more hygeinic) .
OTHER SYMPTOMS OF DIABETES (BOTH TYPE 1 AND 2 )
Weakness and Fatigue:
When cells don't get the glucose they need they make you feel tired and run down.
Tingling or Numbness in Your Hands, Legs or Feet:
This symptom is called neuropathy. Consistent high blood sugar damages nerves. Diabetics describe it as a feeling of walking on cotton wool. Diabetics may not be aware of foot sores that are developing, and so should visually inspect their feet every day.
Other Signs and Symptoms That Can Occur:
Blurred vision, skin that is dry or itchy, frequent infections or cuts and bruises that take a long time to heal , recurrent vaginal infections, women who have unusually large babies, people that pass out for unexplained reasons......
Urination becomes more frequent when there is too much glucose in the blood.
Unquenchable Thirst:
drinking much more than usual, it could be a sign of diabetes, especially if it seems to go hand in hand with frequent urination.
Losing Weight Without Trying:
This symptom is more noticeable with Type 1 diabetes. Without insulin the body can't get glucose into the body for fuel. Muscle and fat start to break down instead.
Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes :
The above symptoms mostly refer to classical or Type 1 Diabetes.
Since it was discovered we have figured out that there is another type of Diabetes, which we call Type 2 Diabetes. People with Type 2 diabetes have insulin, but their body just cant seem to use it.
Type 2 diabetes is a lot like just getting old and fat, and the two go along with each other hand in hand. Many more people have Type 2 diabetes, but because they blend in with all the other aging fat people in the world we need to do tests to sort them out. Tasting urine would still work, but now we have blood tests which are better ( and more hygeinic) .
OTHER SYMPTOMS OF DIABETES (BOTH TYPE 1 AND 2 )
Weakness and Fatigue:
When cells don't get the glucose they need they make you feel tired and run down.
Tingling or Numbness in Your Hands, Legs or Feet:
This symptom is called neuropathy. Consistent high blood sugar damages nerves. Diabetics describe it as a feeling of walking on cotton wool. Diabetics may not be aware of foot sores that are developing, and so should visually inspect their feet every day.
Other Signs and Symptoms That Can Occur:
Blurred vision, skin that is dry or itchy, frequent infections or cuts and bruises that take a long time to heal , recurrent vaginal infections, women who have unusually large babies, people that pass out for unexplained reasons......
History of the Pissing Evil
1552 B.C.
- Earliest known record of diabetes mentioned on 3rd Dynasty Egyptian papyrus by physician Hesy-Ra; mentions polyuria (frequent urination) as a symptom.
- Diabetes described by Arateus as ‘the melting down of flesh and limbs into urine.’
c. 164 A.D.
- Greek physician Galen of Pergamum mistakenly diagnoses diabetes as an ailment of the kidneys.
- Diabetes commonly diagnosed by ‘water tasters,’ who drank the urine of those suspected of having diabetes; the urine of people with diabetes was thought to be sweet-tasting. The Latin word for honey (referring to its sweetness), ‘mellitus’, is added to the term diabetes as a result.
- Paracelsus identifies diabetes as a serious general disorder.
- First chemical tests developed to indicate and measure the presence of sugar in the urine.
- French physician, Priorry, advises diabetes patients to eat extra large quantities of sugar as a treatment.
- French physician, Bouchardat, notices the disappearance of glycosuria in his diabetes patients during the rationing of food in Paris while under siege by Germany during the Franco-Prussian War; formulates idea of individualized diets for his diabetes patients.
- French researcher, Claude Bernard, studies the workings of the pancreas and the glycogen metabolism of the liver.
- Czech researcher, I.V. Pavlov, discovers the links between the nervous system and gastric secretion, making an important contribution to science’s knowledge of the physiology of the digestive system.
- Italian diabetes specialist, Catoni, isolates his patients under lock and key in order to get them to follow their diets.
- Paul Langerhans, a German medical student, announces in a dissertation that the pancreas contains contains two systems of cells. One set secretes the normal pancreatic juice, the function of the other was unknown. Several years later, these cells are identified as the ‘islets of Langerhans.’
- Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering at the University of Strasbourg, France, first remove the pancreas from a dog to determine the effect of an absent pancreas on digestion.
- ‘Fad’ diabetes diets include: the ‘oat-cure’ (in which the majority of diet was made up of oatmeal), the milk diet, the rice cure, ‘potato therapy’ and even the use of opium!
- German scientist, Georg Zuelzer develops the first injectible pancreatic extract to suppress glycosuria; however, there are extreme side effects to the treatment.
- Frederick Madison Allen and Elliot P. Joslin emerge as the two leading diabetes specialists in the United States. Joslin believes diabetes to be ‘the best of the chronic diseases’ because it was ‘clean, seldom unsightly, not contagious, often painless and susceptible to treatment.’
- Allen, after three years of diabetes study, publishes Studies Concerning Glycosuria and Diabetes, a book which is significant for the revolution in diabetes therapy that developed from it.
- Frederick Allen publishes Total Dietary Regulation in the Treatment of Diabetes, citing exhaustive case records of 76 of the 100 diabetes patients he observed, becomes the director of diabetes research at the Rockefeller Institute.
- Allen establishes the first treatment clinic in the USA, the Physiatric Institute in New Jersey, to treat patients with diabetes, high blood pressure and Bright’s disease; wealthy and desperate patients flock to it.
- Dr. Banting conceives of the idea of insulin after reading Moses Barron’s ‘The Relation of the Islets of Langerhans to Diabetes with Special Reference to Cases of Pancreatic Lithiasis’ in the November issue of Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics. For the next year, with the assistance of Best, Collip and Macleod, Dr. Banting continues his research using a variety of different extracts on de-pancreatized dogs.
- Insulin is ‘discovered’. A de-pancreatized dog is successfully treated with insulin.
- Dr. Banting presents a paper entitled ‘The Beneficial Influences of Certain Pancreatic Extracts on Pancreatic Diabetes’, summarizing his work to this point at a session of the American Physiological Society at Yale University. Among the attendees are Allen and Joslin. Little praise or congratulation is received.
- Link is made between diabetes and long-term complications (kidney and eye disease).
- Standard insulin syringe is developed, helping to make diabetes management more uniform.
- Oral drugs are introduced to help lower blood glucose levels.
- Two major types of diabetes are recognized: type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes and type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes.
- The purity of insulin is improved. Home testing for sugar levels in urine increases level of control for people with diabetes.
- Blood glucose meters and insulin pumps are developed.
- Laser therapy is used to help slow or prevent blindness in some people with diabetes.
- First biosynthetic human insulin is introduced.
- Insulin pen delivery system is introduced.
- Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) report is published. The DCCT results clearly demonstrate that intensive therapy (more frequent doses and self-adjustment according to individual activity and eating patterns) delays the onset and progression of long-term complications in individuals with type 1 diabetes.
- The United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) is published. UKPDS results clearly identify the importance of good glucose control and good blood pressure control in the delay and/or prevention of complications in type 2 diabetes.
.
19th Century
- French researcher, Claude Bernard, studies the workings of the pancreas and the glycogen metabolism of the liver.
- Czech researcher, I.V. Pavlov, discovers the links between the nervous system and gastric secretion, making an important contribution to science’s knowledge of the physiology of the digestive system.
- Italian diabetes specialist, Catoni, isolates his patients under lock and key in order to get them to follow their diets.
- Paul Langerhans, a German medical student, announces in a dissertation that the pancreas contains contains two systems of cells. One set secretes the normal pancreatic juice, the function of the other was unknown. Several years later, these cells are identified as the ‘islets of Langerhans.’
- Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering at the University of Strasbourg, France, first remove the pancreas from a dog to determine the effect of an absent pancreas on digestion.
- ‘Fad’ diabetes diets include: the ‘oat-cure’ (in which the majority of diet was made up of oatmeal), the milk diet, the rice cure, ‘potato therapy’ and even the use of opium!
- German scientist, Georg Zuelzer develops the first injectible pancreatic extract to suppress glycosuria; however, there are extreme side effects to the treatment.
- Frederick Madison Allen and Elliot P. Joslin emerge as the two leading diabetes specialists in the United States. Joslin believes diabetes to be ‘the best of the chronic diseases’ because it was ‘clean, seldom unsightly, not contagious, often painless and susceptible to treatment.’
- Allen, after three years of diabetes study, publishes Studies Concerning Glycosuria and Diabetes, a book which is significant for the revolution in diabetes therapy that developed from it.
- Frederick Allen publishes Total Dietary Regulation in the Treatment of Diabetes, citing exhaustive case records of 76 of the 100 diabetes patients he observed, becomes the director of diabetes research at the Rockefeller Institute.
- Allen establishes the first treatment clinic in the USA, the Physiatric Institute in New Jersey, to treat patients with diabetes, high blood pressure and Bright’s disease; wealthy and desperate patients flock to it.
- Dr. Banting conceives of the idea of insulin after reading Moses Barron’s ‘The Relation of the Islets of Langerhans to Diabetes with Special Reference to Cases of Pancreatic Lithiasis’ in the November issue of Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics. For the next year, with the assistance of Best, Collip and Macleod, Dr. Banting continues his research using a variety of different extracts on de-pancreatized dogs.
- Insulin is ‘discovered’. A de-pancreatized dog is successfully treated with insulin.
- Dr. Banting presents a paper entitled ‘The Beneficial Influences of Certain Pancreatic Extracts on Pancreatic Diabetes’, summarizing his work to this point at a session of the American Physiological Society at Yale University. Among the attendees are Allen and Joslin. Little praise or congratulation is received.
- Link is made between diabetes and long-term complications (kidney and eye disease).
- Standard insulin syringe is developed, helping to make diabetes management more uniform.
- Oral drugs are introduced to help lower blood glucose levels.
- Two major types of diabetes are recognized: type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes and type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes.
- The purity of insulin is improved. Home testing for sugar levels in urine increases level of control for people with diabetes.
- Blood glucose meters and insulin pumps are developed.
- Laser therapy is used to help slow or prevent blindness in some people with diabetes.
- First biosynthetic human insulin is introduced.
- Insulin pen delivery system is introduced.
- Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) report is published. The DCCT results clearly demonstrate that intensive therapy (more frequent doses and self-adjustment according to individual activity and eating patterns) delays the onset and progression of long-term complications in individuals with type 1 diabetes.
- The United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) is published. UKPDS results clearly identify the importance of good glucose control and good blood pressure control in the delay and/or prevention of complications in type 2 diabetes.