10th February 2004: "The Rising Incidence of Diabetes"

Diabetes is becoming an epidemic in the world. It is the commonest non-communicable disease and there will soon be 200,000,000 people with diagnosed diabetes. Why is this? Is there anything we can do about it?

Diabetes used to kill - a slow, wasting death - until in 1922 a pancreatic extract containing the hormone insulin was shown to bring diabetic patients out of comas and back to normal blood-sugar levels. Now the disorder is manageable though as yet incurable, but it is complex and expensive to treat.

Professor David Matthews is the chairman of the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, one of the world's foremost centres for the study of this disease. At February's Cafe he will explain what it means to have this disease, and discuss whether we are facing a potential global disaster.

Come along and join us at 7pm in Blackwells Main Bookshop, Broad Street, Oxford.
No ticket, no booking, no scientific background required.