Ways to test blood glucose levels have changed over past 50 years

A conference held at the American Diabetes Association's 75th Scientific Sessions featured a look at what physicians have learned during the past five decades.

Fred Whitehouse, MD, Division Head Emeritus at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit said that today the way glucose levels are tested has also changed dramatically.

Earlier, the only way to assess diabetes control was by testing for the presence of sugar in a person's urine. However, now there are numerous, far more accurate ways to test blood glucose levels, including the non-invasive A1C. The A1C measures average blood glucose levels over a three-month period.

However, researchers claim that although test of glucose levels has gone through dramatic changes over the past 50 years, there is still a long way to go as people a cure.

Robert Ratner, chief scientific and medical officer for the American Diabetes Association, said, “Despite the enormous growth in our understanding of diabetes and its complications, we are still only able to manage the disease”.

Diabetes is a serious health problem as it creates complications. According to Michael Brownlee from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Diabetes Research Centre, if there were no complications, diabetes would be like hypothyroidism and other easily managed diseases.

New treatments must provide optimal glucose and metabolic control without the risk of hypoglycemia and complications of diabetes.

The researchers emphasized that the next 50 years must elucidate the mechanisms by which both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes occur, along with those critical steps at which we might intervene to prevent disease.