Pharmacotherapy of Diabetes: Past, Present, and Future

Many dramatic and clinically relevant changes have occurred since I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes more than 64 years ago. I was fortunate to be referred to a new internal medicine physician who specialized in treating children and adults with diabetes. Dr. O. Charles Olson was a proponent of managing blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible and giving people with diabetes the education and motivation to take charge of their life with diabetes.Within 2 weeks of being diagnosed and while taking three shots of insulin daily, I was told to attend 20 hours of education about diabetes and its treatment. On the first day, I was given a book from the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Mass., and given assignments to read about the disease and its treatments. Diabetes could be managed, I read, if the person with it became a master charioteer of three stallions including Diet, Exercise, and Medications. I read about diabetes and the various factors that could contribute to hyperglycemia. I was educated and encouraged to test my urine glucose levels. I did so using a kit that had magic tablets and a test tube. When the tablets were added to five drops of urine and 10 drops of water, the solution would gurgle, and the color of the resultant reaction informed me of the amount of glucose that had spilled into my urine.This was fun, fascinating, and exciting, yet also a bit scary for me and my parents. I was barely 8 years old, but I was told that I could handle it and become a master charioteer. My family owned a horse, and when I rode her, I would imagine being in control of at least one aspect of my …