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The Saint of Diabetic Research

Diabetes mellitus was always a death sentence in the ancient world. Hippocrates makes no mention of it, which may indicate that he felt the disease was incurable. Aretaeus did attempt to treat it but could not give a good prognosis; he commented that "life (with diabetes) is short, disgusting and painful."

Sushruta (6th century BC and a contemporary of the Buddha) identified diabetes with obesity and sedentary lifestyle, advising exercises to help "cure" it.The ancient Indians tested for diabetes by observing whether ants were attracted to a person's urine, and called the ailment "sweet urine disease" (Madhumeha).

The term diabetes (Greek: διαβήτης, diabētēs) was coined by Aretaeus of Cappadocia (1st Century AD and a contemporary of Christ). It was derived from the Greek verb διαβαίνειν, diabaínein.

Diabetes is first recorded in English, in the form diabete, in a medical text written around 1425. In 1675, Thomas Willis added the word mellitus, from the Latin meaning "honey", a reference to the sweet taste of the urine. This sweet taste had been noticed in urine by the ancient Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians, Indians, and Persians.

Although diabetes has been recognized since antiquity, and treatments of various efficacy have been known in various regions since the Middle Ages, and in legend for much longer, pathogenesis of diabetes has only been understood experimentally since about 1900. The link between the pancreas and diabetes was discovered by Joseph von Mering and Oskar Minkowski in 1889. The endocrine role of the pancreas in metabolism, and indeed the existence of insulin, was not further clarified until 1921, when Sir Frederick Grant Banting and Charles Herbert Best repeated the work of Von Mering and Minkowski, and went further to demonstrate they could reverse induced diabetes in dogs by giving them an extract from the pancreatic islets of Langerhans of healthy dogs. Nicolae Paulescu, a professor of physiology at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, was the first one to isolate insulin, which he called at that time pancrein but found it unusable on humans.

At the time, Children dying from diabetic keto-acidosis were kept in large wards, often with 50 or more patients in a ward, mostly comatose. Grieving family members were often in attendance, awaiting the (until then, inevitable) death.

That is, until Doctor Giuseppe Moscati in Naples, Italy found a way to successfully use insulin to save human patients. Dr. Moscati's mother had died from diabeses in 1914. Because every human experiment using insulin with humans had failed, the search for a sucessful treatment was consdidered a dead end and funding for research was almost impossible to find. Still Dr. Moscati would not give up.

His scientific research notwithstanding, Moscati remained true to his faith his entire life, taking a vow of chastity and practicing charity in his daily work. He viewed his work as a way of alleviating suffering, not as a way of making profits, and would retire regularly for prayer. He also attended Mass daily, and would sometimes use a patient's faith, as well as the sacraments, in his treatments. Moscati also refused to charge the poor for their treatment, and was known to sometimes send a patient home with a prescription and a 50-lire note in an envelope. He spent his nights in prayer and asked God to show him a cure. The Lord heard the prayer of this holy man and he became the first doctor to successfully use insulin to save the life of diabetics.

Dr. Moscati's success with insulin would open the door for Sir Frederick Sanger's determination of the amino acid sequence of insulin (for which Sanger received a Nobel Prize) that allowed the mass production of Insulin.

When cholera broke out in Naples in 1911, Moscati was charged by the civic government with performing public health inspections, and with researching both the origins of the disease and the best ways to eradicate it. This he did quickly, presenting his suggestions to city officials. To his satisfaction, most of these ideas were put into practice by the time of his death. Also in 1911, Moscati became a member of the Royal Academy of Surgical Medicine, and received his doctorate in physiological chemistry.

Besides his work as a researcher and as a doctor, Moscati was responsible for overseeing the directions of the local Institute of Anatomical Pathology. In the institute's autopsy room, he placed a crucifix inscribed with Chapter 13, verse 14 of the Book of Hosea, Ero mors tua, o mors (O death, I will be thy death).

It was claimed even before his death that Moscati was a miracle-worker; some said that he could accurately diagnose and prescribe for any patient merely by hearing a list of his symptoms, and that he was responsible for impossible cures. Reports of his good works continued well after his death, with further reports that he interceded in impossible cases. Consequently, he was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church on November 16, 1975, and was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 25, 1987. His canonization miracle involved the case of a young ironworker dying of leukemia. The young man's mother dreamed of a doctor wearing a white coat, who she identified as Moscati when shown a photograph. Not long after this, her son was cured and returned to work.

Moscati was the first modern doctor to be canonized; his feast day is November 16

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Thank you, Pani Rose!
I have read a brief bio of this saint and was much impressed regarding his life of faith, with such charity etc. However I had no idea he was connected with the use of insulin nor the other items you mention in here!
I am going to go back and read it again and eventually print this out. Where is this from?
Thanks again.
Saint John Moscati, intercede for us and for those dear to us in need.

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A friend sent it to me, I will have to find out from him.

I have really been asking the saints to help with a lot of things here lately, and I never thought of one specifically for diabetis. So I just wanted to share it, as I know so many struggle with sugar problems.

Glad it is helping!

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Since I have diabetes, this is worth knowing.

St. Giuseppi Moscati, pray to God for us!

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Apparently, EWTN aired a 2 part film on his life back in Nov 2009. It may be possible to find it through their on-line archives.

The material that Pani Rose posted is chiefly from the wikipedia entry on Saint Giuseppe, although most all of it also appears in parts elsewhere on the net. Some related photos can be viewed at a wiki-style History of Medicine [himetop.wikidot.com] site.

Many years,

Neil


"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
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Neil I followed your advice

May 1
SAINT GIUSEPPE MOSCATI:
DOCTOR OF THE POOR Part 1

May 8
SAINT GIUSEPPE MOSCATI:
DOCTOR OF THE POOR Part 2


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LOL, Rose, I knew if it could be found in their archives you'd be the one who could do it.

Many years,

Neil


"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."

Moderated by  Irish Melkite, theophan 

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