The way in which diabetes is treated has changed radically over the last 50 years, with most of the these changes ‘for the better', a major international diabetes conference has been told.

A special symposium at the American Diabetes Association's 75th Scientific Sessions focused on the changes in diabetes care over the last five decades.

"There are things that have happened over the past 50 years that clearly make life a lot better for people," commented Dr Fred Whitehouse of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, who has been treating people with diabetes for this long.

He noted that when he first started seeing patients with diabetes decades ago, the only treatment for type 1 diabetes was cow or pig insulin which sometimes caused adverse reactions in people. However today, human insulin is used, which results in far fewer adverse effects. Furthermore, there is no fear of it running out.

Dr Whitehouse also noted that there are now different types of insulin, such as rapid-acting insulin, and a number of ways to administer it, including insulin pumps, which can make it easier for people to control the condition.

The way glucose levels are tested has also undergone huge change. Where previously, a person's urine had to be tested by a doctor, this is no longer the case and easy non-invasive tests can be carried out by anyone.

"There's been a lot of change, most of it for the better, but what people want is a cure and we don't have that yet," Dr Whitehouse acknowledged.

Also speaking at the symposium, Dr Daniel Porte Jnr of the University of Washington, who has carried our research in this field for over 50 years, noted that while there has been major change in this area, this has taken a lot of time.

"In order to understand disease, you have to do basic research. But you've got to be patient, because it takes a long time to go from basic research to clinical impact. For example, the drugs we use now to treat diabetes were first studied 30 to 40 years ago," he noted.

He also pointed out that breakthroughs made in the field of diabetes may also help in the treatment of other conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease.

"We now believe that perhaps impaired insulin action in the central nervous system leads to the behavioral changes we see in Alzheimer's patients," he said.

Meanwhile, according to Dr Michael Brownlee, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Diabetes Research Center, who himself has type 1 diabetes, ‘the reason diabetes is a serious health problem is because of the complications'.

"If there were no complications, diabetes would be like hypothyroidism and other easily managed diseases. You'd take a tablet to replace the hormone and everything would be fine. It wouldn't be a public health problem costing billions of dollars in care each year and requiring billions of dollars of research,' he said.

He pointed out that when he applied for medical school, only half of people with type 1 diabetes were expected to live until their 40s or 50s. As a result, some medical schools did not want to admit him because he ‘wouldn't be able to practice medicine for a full lifetime'.

"They said they'd rather give the spot to someone with a normal lifespan. Fortunately, advances in diabetes research and treatment have made those old statistics obsolete," he commented.

The symposium took place in Boston in the US.