Juden und Diabetes

Abstract It is noticeable that diabetes - unlike other diseases usually associated with Jews, such as leprosy, haemorrhoids and scabies - was not linked to Judaism until the second half of the nineteenth century. The first statistics used to prove that Jews suffer from this metabolic disorder with particular frequency came interestingly from a physician in Karlsbad who noticed that there was a disproportionately high number of Jews among his diabetes patients. Since the end of the nineteenth century, mortality statistics from various cities (Boston, New York, Frankfurt) or regions (Prussia, for instance) have also been used as evidence in the medical literature. They also seem to confirm the higher mortality rates in Jewish diabetes sufferers. Doubts as to the reliability of such statistics were expressed early on. It was pointed out, for instance, that some of the figures came from spa towns or specialized medical practices and were therefore linked to a particular class of Jews and non-Jews. Some physicians sought the cause of the ailment in certain racial characteristics, others in the idiosyncratic behaviours of this demographic group. Given the highly complex processes underlying the origin of diabetes, the findings of modern genetic research may well also prove to be incorrect in the future.