Engraving by LaFosse, from a photograph by Pierson
Apollinaire Bouchardat was a French pharmacist and hygienist who wrote the first known textbook on diabetes, De la glucosurie ou diabète sucré. It summarized all his treatments and views at the time in over 1,000 pages. His lifelong dedication led him to be famously dubbed as the founder of modern diabetology.
Bouchardat was born in L’Isle-sur-Serein, France. His father, who owned a tannery, introduced him to chemistry when he was a child, while his uncle, a pharmacist, trained him at a young age in the pharmacy. Bouchardat moved to Paris at 19 to study at the École de Pharmacie. Following his studies, he worked as a professor of hygiene and was appointed Chief Pharmacist at the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Paris in 1935. At age 49, Bouchardat resigned from his role to begin a career in nutritional hygiene.
Bouchardat made huge strides as a hygienist. He was among the first to suggest the pancreas as having a role in diabetes and hypothesized an important gastric juice that caused the condition. He also conducted research on urine glucose, a common symptom of diabetes. At the time, Pierre Adolphe Piorry, a professor of internal medicine, recommended that people living with diabetes should eat large amounts of sugar. Bouchardat refuted this. He noticed that glucose disappeared in the urine of his patients who had starved in the 1970 Franco-Prussian War. He subsequently conducted experiments on fasting which confirmed his observations. He also noted that people with diabetes were able to better tolerate carbohydrate intake after exercise. These results led him to recommend diet and exercise to his patients.
With these findings, Bourchardat began educating his patients on how to manage their diabetic condition. He taught them to exercise and created a list of forbidden and permitted foods. Forbidden foods included starches and sugars, including fruits and bread, while permitted food included meats, eggs, cheese, and wine. He also taught his patients how to perform at-home glucose urine tests as a way of monitoring their blood sugar levels.
Bouchardat’s passion for science led to his appointment as the President of the Academy of Medicine in 1866. He married Anne-Antoinette Malot and had two children before he died in Paris in 1886. His evidence-based discoveries pioneered diabetology. He developed innovative treatment plans of exercise and diet long before the discovery of insulin and was the first clinician to educate people living with diabetes on how to manage their condition. His legacy lives on as diet, exercise and glucose self-monitoring remain important components of diabetes management today.
— Written by Stephanie Tran