Diabetes is a huge burden on society! About 1.4 million British people have been diagnosed with it, and its treatment, with that of its associated complications, is estimated to consume between 5% and 9% of all NHS resources (1). Estimated costs of the associated conditions are assessed at over £2 billion p.a., which is about 20 times the amount spent on just diabetes prescriptions.

Disturbingly though, only about half of the diabetics in this country have been diagnosed, and another 1 million, or more, may have the more common diabetes mellitus, which affects about 75% of diabetics, but are unaware of it!

Experience suggests that it may take up to 7 years before they are diagnosed, thus contributing to the 100,000 newly diagnosed cases each year (1). Diabetes is the most common cause of blindness in Britain, and victims are also considered 4 times more likely, than others, to suffer from coronary heart disease. To cap it all, 40,000 amputations are performed on diabetics who have related complications (2).