# The Roman Empire and Diabetes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 24, 2009, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roman-empire-and-diabetes/494172 "2009-04-24T01:44:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roman-empire-and-diabetes/494172/21 "2009-04-24T22:33:23Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Good luck. I’ve been trying to kill it for years, but it is like a seed that does not die and cannot be destroyed; and ever and anon it sprouts anew, and will bear dark fruit even unto the latest days. > > 😉 I just learned that in class the other day… at the end of my first year of medical school. It’s a tough myth! ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roman-empire-and-diabetes/494172/22 "2009-04-24T22:34:24Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > And worse yet is when my husband is suffering from a hypoglycemic episode and some “helpful” idiot is prying the the nugget of hard candy out of his hand… > > Oh, don’t get me started - ! Does that actually happen?! ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roman-empire-and-diabetes/494172/23 "2009-04-25T02:32:58Z")
Yes. It has actually happened. Twice that I was present to see, possibly more than that. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roman-empire-and-diabetes/494172/24 "2009-04-25T12:44:39Z")
> [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](#): > > I just learned that in class the other day… at the end of my first year of medical school. It’s a tough myth! Do us all a favor and listen hard to the stuff they teach you about diabetes. The amount of disinformation that some medical professionals have over this disease is amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roman-empire-and-diabetes/494172/25 "2009-04-25T16:28:08Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Do us all a favor and listen hard to the stuff they teach you about diabetes. The amount of disinformation that some medical professionals have over this disease is amazing. I am! We’re in a city rife with diabetes (associated with poverty and poor access to healthy food), so we’ve already had 3 separate lecturers discuss the topic with us. Plus, I have a vested interest, since my stepdad and his family are all Type-2 diabetics. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roman-empire-and-diabetes/494172/26 "2009-04-25T16:44:01Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Perhaps you heard about the surmised epidemic of lead poisoning experienced in the Roman empire, due to lead pipes, and use of lead as a wine additive. What I don’t understand about that theory, about the lead pipes, is wasn’t lead used as the primary source of piping in this country until relatively recently? Obviously, not everybody who lived in lead pipe America got lead poisoning, did they? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roman-empire-and-diabetes/494172/27 "2009-04-25T17:49:03Z")
Like many problems, it has to be seen in context. Cold water flowing through a lead pipe isn’t good, but it’s not necessarily deadly either as the cold water doesn’t pick up the maximum possible lead in transit. Now, boiling wine in a lead pot - which the Romans would do for some recipes - has a much worse effect, as the hot liquid picks up a LOT more lead that way. It also makes the food sweeter, which makes people inclined to eat more of it. Thus, Romans living in the same city using the same water supply might nonetheless have wildly varying levels of lead in their bodies. Not all Romans were poisoned, those that were, were poisoned to different degrees. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roman-empire-and-diabetes/494172.md?page=1)