ABSTRACT
Diabetes is new and has been a serious plague on humanity throughout recorded history. Despite a number of medical advances, patient self-management remains the cornerstone of diabetes treatment. In many ways the aim of balancing diabetes is no different to the multiple balances that everybody has to maintain in life in terms of what they eat and drink, and the amount of activity they maintain. The onset of diabetes relies upon a combination of genetic and environmental ‘triggers’, such as inadequate nutrition or poor eating habits. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, researchers began to explore the diagnosis of diabetes and the role of insulin. In the 1930s, research by Himsworth clearly demonstrated the difference between type 1 and 2 diabetes. In the 1950s, the oral medications for type 2 diabetes were developed, and since that time a variety of convenient blood testing and diagnostic tools have been developed.
