This year marks a century since an extraordinary medical breakthrough – the use of insulin to treat diabetes mellitus. But it took another 300 years for a link between diabetes and the pancreas to be discovered. In January 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson, hospitalised and near death in Toronto, became the first person to receive insulin and survive diabetes. Getty ImagesBreakthroughs in glucose monitoringAt the same time as insulin therapy was being developed, glucose-monitoring technology was also progressing. Crude assessment of glucose in the urine, used in New Zealand until the early 1980s, was superseded by the development of finger-prick blood-glucose measurements.

Source: Stuff November 15, 2022 22:25 UTC