What is diabetes?

    Diabetes is a very serious and, as yet, incurable disease suffered by over 135 million people. Every year, about 2.8 million people die of complications caused by the disease. It can lead to blindness, kidney failure and even amputations without proper care.

   For type 1 diabetes sufferers, diabetes means a life of having to inject themselves about 4 times a day plus the prospect of having to test their blood up to 4 times a day. At the moment, blood is tested by jabbing the end of the finger with a needle and then removing a drop of blood. The drop of blood is then placed on a glucose monitor.

   For type 2 diabetes sufferers, there are less injections (I believe that most type 2 sufferers don't need any injections at all), but diet control is a very serious issue. They can't eat anything with too much sugar in as their blood-sugar levels are consistently high.

    This website looks at the two main types of diabetes in more detail. It looks at the developments in glucose monitoring and injection technology and the new research in hunt for a cure to the disease. Also, the chemical structures of the major chemicals involved are studied, as is their chemistry.