Read Missy's last post, How Do I Know if I Have Gestational
Diabetes? Gestational diabetes was only added to the World
Health Organization's list of diagnostic codes in 1979. Was this
a new phenomenon in 1979? Physicians had known about diabetes
for centuries. Had doctors just discovered gestational diabetes
in 1979? Insulin had been used to treat diabetes since 1921 and
oral medications since the early 1960s. So, why was gestational
diabetes not given an official medical code until such a late
date? The answer to that question has a lot to do with our
social understanding of health and illness. Advances in medical
technology, along with a new interest in the early detection of
disease, have fundamentally changed the way we view illness.
This has been especially so for chronic illnesses like diabetes.
But, diabetes was not always considered a chronic illness. Until
the discovery of insulin in 1921 and the realization about a
decade later that another form of diabetes, now called Type 2,
could be present witho